"Foothills Garden"

One month ago this slope was carpeted with fiddleneck wildflowers. No rain for a month and they have checked out. Now the grasses dominate, their shiny softness making a pleasing foreground to greening shrubs and trees. In another month, these soft grasses will become burly and barbed, sinking stemmed seeds into anything that passes through. I have discarded many socks and shoes as a result of theses piercing grasses, unable to remove all of the seeds. They are painfully vicious when walking among them. As we progress into the dry season, the trees will syphon up all the available water. As I speak, there are apparent dry circles under many of the larger trees as they monopolize the ground moisture underneath. What is currently a spring bounty will soon become a summer survival. For now, I can understand the cycle of life, but when the temps reach 100 degrees every day and rains are absent for months at a time, the possibility of life's survival evades my comprehension. I guess these forms of life also demonstrate hope; hope for the next gift from spring. Thanks for taking a look. I hope you might take time to observe the Larger preview!

Thanks as always for your thoughts and critiques. The Larger preview is helpful!

Excellent ^^^ BR

 

***Ali***

I am impressed how you have made a relatively ordinary (as far as landscape photos goes) scene look so dramatic. I have much to learn.I know all about prickly weeds, too!

Excellent work! 6/6

Thanks Ali, Adrienne and Maurizio! Adrienne, there are no ordinary landscapes when they are made to look dramatic. Go out and find your own, just make sure you are there when the light is enchanting. Make ordinary look extraordinary!

Love your hillside imagery. With or without the flowers you certainly have a terrific landscape to work from and you do it so well. The slight haze in the background really adds the finishing touch to the terrific array of muted color. Another winner in my book for Mr. Greistweite. Best regards, rek.

Thanks Richard. Always good to hear from you!!

Another beauty with your unique composition making it extraordinary, however I do have a couple of small nits. The first is the dark band across the distant hill and top of the tree on the right and the foreground focus doesn't seem quite as sharp as I use to from you. These are not "deal breakers" by any means as this is one beautiful image.

Thanks Leo! Oh well, the digital grad leaves a shadow much like the split neutral grad. This scene actually has strong backlight, so it is necessary to blend two or more, as I often do. In this case, because the light is so strong, it even blows the treeline out, especially the outer branches. In order to have detail, a sacrifice must be made, so a subtle shadow must be allowed so the trees regain some detail. I actually selected the trees after blending and influenced them with a hard upward curve, but you can only go so far. It is a necessary compromise, even for a hard core blender like me. If HDR software were used, there would probably be a weird halo along that treeline. As far as the grass, the nearest stalks were swaying with a very gentle breeze. I waited as long as I could, but my family waits. As you know, with wide lenses, the nearer objects show motion more than objects further away. I pretty much am aware of these concessions when I have wrapped up my work. Still, I like the results and just part of the struggle to display the backlit grasses without a totally white sky.